International project of the UNN Faculty of Social Sciences nominated for the EEUA Award 2021
The Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree "Central and Eastern European, Russian and Eurasian Studies" (IMCEERES) international project, implemented at the Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS) of Lobachevsky University, became a nominee of the 5th Annual Competition of projects in the field of international activities of Russian and CIS universities EEUA 2021.
The project team of the Faculty of Social Sciences and the UNN Institute of International Relations and World History, comprising Roman Golubin, Irina Leonova, Sergey Sudin, Irina Petrova, Alexander Kornilov and Sergey Krivov, received a commendation from the award competition organizing committee.
The nomination of the FSS project "Central and Eastern European, Russian and Eurasian Studies" in the category "Development of Interuniversity Cooperation" in 2021 is quite logical. As the project's initiators have pointed out, IMCEERES is a unique international master's programme implemented by a consortium of eight leading research and educational centres, including Lobachevsky University. The consortium is led by Glasgow University (UK) and the University of Tartu (Estonia). Students can obtain two degrees at the end of the programme: a joint degree from the University of Glasgow and the University of Tartu and a degree from a consortium member university chosen according to their specialisation.
The IMCEERES programme aims to prepare highly qualified professionals with international experience for careers in public administration, international organisations and associations and in higher education and business. The project attracts top talents from the world's leading research and education centres, ranked in the top 200 subject areas and top 500 institutional rankings, which proves the high level of competition for the programme. The IMCEERES project has won and has been supported by the annual Erasmus Plus grant competition three times in the last decade, which proves its competitiveness and attractiveness in the international education space.
"The IMCEERES programme is of great importance for the internationalisation of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Lobachevsky University as a whole. The results achieved by FSS through the programme proved our ability to solve a huge number of organisational issues, to build truly strategic partnerships with consortium members and to make the project a reality: in cooperation with foreign colleagues, roles, tasks and areas of responsibility within the consortium have been effectively allocated, legislative, cultural, academic and institutional barriers have been overcome. Joint research is underway, foreign colleagues from the consortium partner universities present their open lectures on a regular basis, joint supervision of students’ research is carried out", - explains Irina Leonova, FSS Deputy Dean for International Affairs.
The EEUA Award was established by the Association of Eastern European Universities in 2017 and is awarded to project teams for their achievements in internationalisation of higher education and active promotion of Russia and CIS countries in the global space. The award is also intended to draw the attention of the professional community and the public to the annual contribution of universities and language schools in the development of national higher education, building the country's reputation in the international educational services market, as well as individual and collective contributions to the development of higher education.
